Tania and I made it out on the water on Saturday. Once again, the local bait shops were out of bait; however, I still had frozen shrimp from last week’s trip so we were good to go. We reached the dock at 6:30am, where the friendly dockhand who welcomed us retrieved our boat right away.

I was surprised by the wind’s strength, which was stronger than I had expected based on the forecast. This made me apprehensive about how choppy the ocean might be. By the time we loaded the boat and left the dock, it was already around 6:45am.

Our initial stop was at Fort Pierce City Marina to check if they had any live shrimp, and we were fortunate to obtain four dozen. Afterwards, we went to War Daddy Bait boat to purchase Pilchards and Threadfins. Once we had all the bait we needed, we made our way out of the inlet.

Upon approaching the inlet, I could tell the ocean was rougher than what I thought it would be based on the marine forecast. The wind was closer to the higher end of the 5-10kts range, and the waves were more like 3ft at 2-3 seconds rather than the expected 2-3ft at 8 seconds. We didn’t venture too far beyond the inlet before deciding to turn back.

Since we had an incoming tide with an east wind we decided to try and drift the north side of the inlet. Tania was jigging and I tossed a live pilchard along the rocks. The conditions were pretty rough so we didn’t stay in the inlet long.

We moved to the first day marker to try our luck for some snapper. We fished this area for about 30 minutes with very little luck. Tania caught the only fish, a small Black Margate. We had lots of bites; however, we believe it was just a bunch of small fish as we were unable to hook them. The lack of fish in the cooler, prompted Tania to ask to go over to Taylor Creek to try for a snook. Tania doesn’t often ask to target Snook so I agreed.

We rolled into Taylor Creek and started fishing the south shoreline just before the first dock and worked all the way to the bridge. At the first dock my line started to take off, but I didn’t hook whatever took my bait. Unfortunately, that was the only action we had in Taylor Creek.

Tania and I did run into my buddy Captain Billy Briggs of Old Florida Guide Services. He had clients onboard and we were fortunate enough to watch one of the clients land a snook. Great job putting your clients on fish Captain Billy!

Shortly after watching Captain Billy’s client reel in the snook, Tania and I decided to head to the turn basin to see what we could catch jigging. On our first drift near the Catwalk Tania landed a short Mutton Snapper. The drift was a bit difficult due to the wind and current but we managed. On the second drift Tania landed a decent size Gafftopsail Catfish and eight hardhead Catfish. I myself only caught one hardhead. Since the Catfish were so thick we moved to south side of South Causeway Bridge to try a drift and see what we could catch. The water was not too dirty but once again all we caught were Hardhead Catfish. At this point Tania and I decided to call it a day.

On our way back to the dock, we passed by another boat and offered them the rest of our bait. They were grateful as they had run out of bait and were heading in. As I was transferring the bait to their bucket, one of the gentlemen, named Paul, asked me if my name was Mike. He recognized me from my fishing reports on Facebook, which was a great feeling. We chatted for a bit and wished them luck with the bait. Paul, Garrett, and Logan, I hope the bait we gave you helped you catch some fish! Please let us know.

Tania and I pray all who made it out this weekend had a safe and blessed trip. May all who go out this week have tight lines and good times!

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